Distant Earths – Daniel Apai's Blog on Exoplanet Exploration and Astrobiology
Distant Earths – Daniel Apai's Blog on Exoplanet Exploration and Astrobiology
A Galactic Search for Life
Nautilus is a revolutionary space telescope concept that builds on a novel technology – engineered material diffractive-transmissive optical elements – to overcome the greatest limitations of space telescopes: non-scalable primary mirrors. By providing large but ultra-light telescope apertures, the Nautilus technology will enable the launch of a large fleet of identical telescopes. With a light-collecting power equivalent to a 50m diameter mirror Nautilus will be capable of surveying thousands of earth-size
Over the past two billion years life has profoundly changed the atmosphere of our planet: the abundance of the free molecular oxygen and ozone – both highly reactive gases – along with water vapor and methane represent a yet unique atmospheric composition. The combined presence of these gases, atmospheric biosignatures, in our planet’s atmosphere is a tracer of life that could be detected remotely, even over galactic distances. But identifying the spectral fingerprints of these atmospheric components in the
Distant Earths – Daniel Apai's Blog on Exoplanet Exploration and Astrobiology
Distant Earths – Daniel Apai's Blog on Exoplanet Exploration and Astrobiology